


Hunt Me Wild

by Cupcakemolotov



Series: come alive [53]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/M, Fae!Caroline, Hellhound!Caroline, Pre-Doppleganger Mess, hybrid!Klaus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-27 14:59:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19015249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cupcakemolotov/pseuds/Cupcakemolotov
Summary: When Klaus interrupts your dinner, party of one, at least he does it with style. Particularly when he wants something.





	Hunt Me Wild

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I did what I wanted to with the mythology and ignored everything else.

The man who had so rudely sat down across from her was startlingly attractive. Tumbling curls and glittering eyes, his full lips were curled into a small smile that hinted at dimples in his cheeks. The suit he wore was perfectly cut, and she appreciated his lack of tie. But it was the monster sitting so dangerously beneath his skin that pricked at her instincts.

Predator, her secret heart whispered, not prey.

"I believe you're at the wrong table," Caroline drawled, head tipping to the side as she studied him. She doubted he'd sat anywhere other than where he'd intended, and any other night she might have indulged his brashness. Particularly since she'd already taken care of potential eavesdroppers with the slightest touch of magic.

But it'd been a long evening, and she wasn't in the mood for company. Caroline loved her job, adored the chaos of her galleries, but hiding what sat in the marrow of her bones was exhausting. Particularly when she'd gone months without movement on her current hunt.

Tonight, she'd wanted the churn of people without the need to actually interact with anyone. That meant getting rid of her unexpected guest. No matter how good looking. But instead of leaving, his smile deepened, amusement enhancing the bladed edge of him.

"My apologies, love, but you're a difficult woman to track down."

Caroline swirled her wine glass, gaze narrowed. She knew with absolute certainty that he couldn't sense her monster, not through the spells she wore against her skin. He didn't stink of witch, and the magic that marked him as supernatural tasted faintly of old blood. There were only so many reasons why a creature of his power would be interested in speaking to her, and that knowledge scraped across her temper like sandpaper.

"And what is your apology for?" Caroline flicked her gaze across the lines of his face before scanning the immediate area, her tone cool. "Ruining my evening?"

He glanced around as well, something undeniably arrogant in those eyes before he met her gaze again. "Well now, I'd hardly say ruined as we've yet to receive the first course. And while I'd have gone with a different red, perhaps you'll allow me to choose the second bottle, hmm?"

She made a low noise of dissent. "No."

His dimples flickered, eyes amused. "Next time, then."

Definitely arrogant. Caroline wasn't sure if she wanted to find him amusing or bite him. Maybe both. "Since you've clearly arranged this little meeting for a purpose, tell me why I should ignore your rudeness and listen."

And not kick up a the kind of fuss that would require witches to hide the results.

Intensity prickled along her skin as blue of his eyes darkened at her challenge, his gaze dipping to study her lips for a heartbeat. "Let's call tonight's dinner an opportunity. "

"An opportunity for who?" She asked with arched brows, setting her wine glass down and straightening her spine. There was something about this monster, but curiosity wouldn't keep her at this table for much longer. He chuckled low and delighted, reaching for the bottle of her favorite Malbec he'd disparaged earlier.

As if the act was a silent signal, a waiter appeared with a plate of carpaccio. Her usual order when she needed to soothe the darker parts of her soul. That this man had been watching her did not sit well with her beast.

Caroline did not take kindly to being hunted.

Not anymore.

"My name is Klaus," he said when she made no move to reach for the food, his eyes sharp and calculating. "I'm sure you've heard of me?"

Caroline blinked. Klaus Mikaelson was a name she'd heard over the centuries. More often now, as the vampires had grown in numbers. However...

Frowning slightly, she let herself study him closer, a hint of her truth peering from behind her eyes. She could see the immortality grafted to his cells, the magic that lived in the stolen blood of him. But vampirism hadn't shaped his bone and marrow, that was an older magic. A magic that she recognized almost as easily as her own.

She saw no point in pretending ignorance.

"Klaus Mikaelson? I thought you were supposed to be a vampire." This was something else. The potential was trapped, handicapped by magic that wove through him like a vice, but it existed.

Like recognized by like.

Klaus' smile was slow and pleased, his dimples on full display. "I confess, love, when I was told of your existence, I was quite certain they had exaggerated your talents. It seems I was wrong to doubt. Not even a witch could have managed your earlier spell with quite the level of subtlety."

So he could sense magic.

"I am not a pretty party trick," Caroline said softly, voiced edged in dangerous warning. "And the number of witches who know of what I am are very few and far between. Who helped you?"

"'Helped' is not quite the word that I would choose," he said thoughtfully. "And I meant no offense. In all my centuries, the truth of your existence has not reached my ears in so much as a whisper. Hellhounds were nothing more than a myth far older than anything I've encountered in this world. That you are so lovely does not take away from the truth of you, love."

She brushed the compliment to the side. The Fae empire would never have allowed something they considered hideous to survive, and what few true hellhounds still existed were the result of years of magical torture and breeding. Whatever part of her genetic makeup had been human had all but disappeared beneath the magic and intent of her once slavers. Her face, her true face, was a weapon and nothing more.

"Perhaps there are good reasons that those who knew of our existence chose not to speak of us," Caroline murmured. "And what, did you imagine glowing red eyes and a foul odor? Humans are notoriously unreliable in their descriptions."

"I expected very little," Klaus said easily, unbothered by the sharpness in her gaze. "But it is so very unusual for creatures with power to stay so fully in the shadows."

Caroline laughed at him, finally reaching for a slice of her appetizer. Shaking her head as she swallowed, she reclaimed her wine glass. "Now that is quite hypocritical coming from you. Have you not spend centuries disappearing for decades at a time?"

He tipped his head in acknowledgement, eyes unblinking as he watched her. "I have my reasons."

"Oh, I'm sure you do," she replied, unconcerned. "Who were the witches?"

"Dead," Klaus murmured. "Very dead."

Caroline sighed. The other side could be such a bother, but there were other ways to deal with those Qetsiyah had banished to mindless boredom for the length of their existence. She was not bound to this realm, and the newly dead had a particular scent about them. Easy enough to hunt. But there was no reason to give away all her secrets to this monster. Deciding she was hungry, she reached for the rest of the appetizer and she let herself bait him in return.

"And what, Klaus Mikaelson, is so important that you find yourself chasing old myths and legends?" She gave him a cutting smile. "And more importantly, interrupting my dinner?"

"The witch who spoke of your existence was rather… chatty. Even when I had my fingers curled around her lungs, she managed to find an inordinate amount of air to prattle with." Klaus shook his head, the hint of amusement in the corners of his mouth not entirely false. "We had a number of topics that needed to be discussed, but the only interesting tidbit she could offer was you."

Caroline considered that as she chewed. "Me or my existence?"

Klaus smiled slightly, as if she'd passed some unknown test. "You, specifically, I'm afraid. Your ability to hunt was secondary."

"Myth does paint us as the instigators of the Wild Hunt," Caroline said pleasantly as she pushed the empty plate away.

"And are you?"

"Once upon a time," she admitted freely, seeing no harm in confirming those details. When they'd stolen their magic back from the Fae courts, the hunt had become something else entirely. It was theirs again. "But that was a long time ago."

This time his smile was sharp, dimples bracketing sin and a fascinating darkness she would have liked to trace with her fingertips. The slight flicker of his gaze told her that he'd noticed, but neither of them spoke as the waiter collected the dishes from the first course.

"I take it you decided upon the main course as well then?" Her words were snippy, but it didn't seem to bother him.

"Arranged directly with the chef," he murmured, tongue flicking over his lips as she sighed in exasperation. That indulgent amusement and what might have been his own fascination was open on his face as he reached into his suit jacket. Brows arching as he produced a photograph, she frowned a little as she recognized her work.

She'd sold this particular piece in Dallas, three years prior. "Are you a collector of photography, Klaus?"

"I enjoy many mediums of artwork," he said easily. "Photography less than painting, of course, but you have an exquisite eye for emotion. Which is why your work has puzzled me for months, Caroline."

Lips curling, she arched a single brow. "How so? Not used to studying humanity?"

He chuckled at the bite in her words as he reached for the wine and topped off her glass. "The photograph is lovely, but the subjects, the medium? You constantly change them. Unusual, for someone in your field."

"I like a challenge," Caroline returned. "It's harder, don't you think, to frame a single moment in a picture that speaks rather than futzing about with paint and oil? I find painting to be quite boring."

A hint of charm, as his lips curved. "But it's not just a matter of boredom, is it? You're hunting, love."

Intrigued by the accuracy of his guess, she tipped her head. There was a challenge there, a hint of a dare for her to try to deny it. "And what am I hunting?"

His finger tapped by the edge of the picture, and Caroline let her eyes lower linger on the memory. She had taken the photo in New York City. It was just one of thousands like it. But this one alone had been different, and her beast stirred in approval that he might have noticed why, however impossible it should have been. The human who had bought the photo had no reason to think that he'd paid for a memento of the last day the subject of her work had lived.

No one did.

Klaus' eyes met hers when her gaze lifted, something stark and bladed watching her from behind the pretty shield of his lashes. "Tell me, sweetheart, do visuals help you stalk your prey?"

"Not always," Caroline said after a moment, deciding she could be indulgent. " "But sometimes."

Magic was such an interesting thing. Far glamours were harder to hide in old mirrors, but it was photography that striped a face bare for her magic. The more precise the pixels had become, the better her ability to see clearly through magic.

But not quite always.

Klaus, she knew, could not see the true perfection of the face near his fingertips, that the delicately pointed ears and narrow jawline. This one had grown careless with his magic and he had stood out in her photos like a beacon.

"Is that what you've come to ask of me? That I hunt someone for you?"

"I have come to seek a bargain."

Caroline leaned back against the wood of her chair as interest stirred in her chest. His wording had been deliberate, she knew. Old magic flickered between them, and the truth of him sat on the tip of her tongue. If he did this, she'd be able to find him no matter where he tried to hide from her. She wondered if he understood that. "And what do you think you have to offer me, Niklaus Mikaelson? I have no use for your money, I have my own. You are no witch to offer a magical trade. While I suppose your minions could be amusing they are generally quite stupid."

A flash of dimples, but his gaze never wavered. "My minions have their uses, even if their lives are quite short. I imagine you could find your own use or two for them, if necessary."

She snorted. "Unlikely."

Klaus lifted a shoulder. "Perhaps not, then. But that is not what I have come to offer. Tell me, sweetheart, how many of the Fae who held your kind captive for so many centuries still exist?"

Caroline's gaze narrowed, beast shoving against her skin. For a moment, she felt the world sharpen, knew that he could almost see the truth of her beneath her own glamour. Faint, barely perceptible veins crawled briefly beneath Klaus' eyes in response, but they disappeared as she forced her beast down. "No witch told you that."

"No." He murmured, voice low and faintly touched with gravel.

Fed up with the game, she leaned forward and let her hound rumble beneath her words. "What do you want?"

"I'm hunting a doppelganger," Klaus said without blinking. "A witch has hidden her, and I want her found."

A flicker of understanding cut through her rising temper. "I thought your Sun and Moon curse was nonsense."

His gaze narrowed. "Interesting that you came to that conclusion."

Caroline shrugged, unwilling to discuss how she knew the truth. "As I said, your minions can be quite stupid."

"Find me the doppleganger," Klaus said softly, voice honed in iron. "And I will bend my considerable resources to helping you root out your lingering enemies."

She leaned forward and studied the picture between them again, fingers lifting to skim the edge of the photo. "Tell me, Klaus. What do you see when you look at this picture?"

A slight narrowing of his eyes but his gaze lowered to the photo that sat between them. Head canting to the side, he made no flippant remark as she spun the glossy paper around, giving him a clear view of the street in New York.

"Power," he said after a long moment, words soft, calculating. "You kept him deliberately out of immediate focus, letting the viewers eyes linger instead on other subjects, but it is there. In his posture, the angle of his shoulders. Easily mistaken for human arrogance, but so very few humans look at the world in such a way."

"Not bad," Caroline agreed before opening her hand in a silent invitation. Something quicksilver and dangerous moved behind his eyes, but he threaded his fingers through hers, something arrogant and proprietary in his hold. She let her magic loose, just a little, so he could feel the bite of it. His cheekbones sharpened, jaw going tight, and she smiled with teeth.

"And now?"

He went still beneath her fingers and magic, but he did not flinch away from the terrible purity of the face now before him. If anything, the calculation and hint of danger from him only intrigued her more. She found herself wondering if he wore a similar expression in bed and if he focused with the same intensity on his partner.

"I do not need your help hunting my prey," Caroline told him as she tried to tug her hand free. Her gaze narrowed as he continued to hold her hand, his eyes returning to hers. "They are mine. And while there are other ways to find them, patterns even someone without sight could use once they understood what they were looking for, we enjoy our chase. It may span centuries yet, but with each death, we slowly close that gap. One day, they will truly be only myth, the truth of their existence wiped free from the universe."

All of the realms would be clean, but this strange monster did not need to know that. Not yet. Particularly when he still hadn't released her hand. His thumb ran a tantalizing line across her knuckles as he considered her words.

"We?"

She laughed softly, finally tugging her hand free as the waiter approached with their main course. The smell of actual food, meat and cheese and pasta, had her stomach rumbling and it allowed her almost ignore the way his touch lingered against her skin.

"Tell me why you want the doppelganger."

Klaus' eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"That is my bargain. You will tell me the truth of your curse and then if I agree to help you, you will owe me one favor of my choosing." She studied her mostly empty bottle of wine and caught the eyes of the waiter, motioning for him to bring another. "You will have until I finish desert to make it interesting."

She wanted to know the truth of the wolf in his veins and why it was trapped there. She also found herself intrigued by him, this monster who'd hunted her through her prey and been smart enough to see patterns lost among the masses. But there was no point in telling him that just yet.

"Is that so?"

There was a blade there, a hint of the violence that lived so openly beneath his skin. Caroline wondered what he would think when he realized she liked that side of him almost more than those intriguing flashes of charm. "If you didn't order dessert, then no deal."

Klaus leaned back and studied her, gaze hard. "And what do I receive in return for such information? The scales seem a bit unbalanced, do they not?"

She picked up her fork. "Since there seems to be a lack of convenient witches at hand to torture for information about you, one could argue that I am merely balancing the scales."

A faint noise of derision. "You did not need a witch to tell you of my existence."

"But whatever they told was enough for you to hunt me," Caroline said cooly, her beast flickering through her words. "I am not prey."

A tip of his head, an acknowledgment of her warning. "Three questions."

"I will ask you whatever questions I want."

A hint of that wicked smile tugged at his lips. "I suppose you will. No, Caroline. I will give you the story you seek, answer those questions of yours. In return, you will answer three questions of mine, no matter if you agree to my hunt or not."

Caroline picked up her fork and took a careful bite of what Klaus had ordered for her. It was delicious. Taking another bite, she turned over his demand, considered the angles. She liked that he was pushing back, but she sensed that giving in too easily would set a precedence she didn't want. Klaus was used to taking. "I will answer your questions depending on what you ordered for desert."

His laughter was real, this time. Head shaking, he gave her an open look of such heat, she felt her cheeks warm beneath the careful illusion that kept her truth carefully hidden. "If you're dissatisfied with desert, I will happily pay recompense in other ways, should you like." The heat in his eyes left no doubt as to what he was offering. "Three questions, Caroline. That is my stipulation."

She could say no. But as he sat across from her, his wicked offer lingering between them, she decided she could give him this one thing. "If you must."

"I must."

Catching sight of the waiter approaching with her wine, she reached for the bottle and emptied it into her glass. "Then I suppose you should start explaining, hmm? And Klaus? Don't lie to me."

His eyes gleamed. "And where would you like me to start?"

She leaned forward with a smile, the edge of her teeth gleaming in the light. "Tell me about your wolf."

If she liked his answers as much as she was finding she liked him, she might even let him demonstrate some of his earlier suggested recompense, regardless of how delicious she found desert. She did so love a good story.

And if it brought a new hunt with it…

All the better.

But Klaus didn't need to know that, just yet.


End file.
